Oleg Protopopov

Oleg Protopopov (1932 to 2023) was a Russian pair skater who represented the Soviet Union with his wife Ludmila Belousova. The pair were Olympic champions in 1964 and 1968 and world champions four times from 1965 to 1968. Their 1964 title was the first Olympic pairs gold for the Soviet Union and began a run of Soviet and Russian pairs victories lasting until 2006, the longest streak in Olympic sports history. Protopopov took up skating at fifteen and served in the Baltic Fleet before meeting Belousova in 1954. The pair trained at the Lokomotiv sports club, defected to Switzerland in 1979, became Swiss citizens in 1995 and kept skating in shows into their seventies.